Xinjiang and political economy of propaganda

To understand Xinjiang, one must visit, interact with people and analyse the economic and development data—the modernisation drive of Xinjiang.

The data shows Xinjiang one of the fastest-growing regions: it surpassed national GDP growth rate in 2023 with a rate of 6.8pc; per capita GDP of Xinjiang was 73,774 RMB in 2023; disposable income observed an upward trend. Xinjiang has emerged as leading exporter for Central Asian countries with total exports worth 246.57 billion yuan ($34.25 billion) in 2023.

China is very keen to accelerate modernisation drive of Xinjiang further. The central government is diverting generous resources to build quality economic infrastructure like transportation, free trade zones, etc. China will be investing about $40 billion in the coming years. The government is equally focused on agricultural development, and under rural revitalisation, it is working more closely with farming community. Inputs and agriculture machinery are being subsidized and farming community helped to renovate their homes by providing 20000 RMB for each family.

Simultaneously, government is concentrating on preserving culture, building people’s capacity, educating people in religious studies, etc. For example, it has established a state-of-the-art madrassa for the Muslim community in Urumqi. In terms of education standards and facilities, it competes with universities.

Government provides 5000 RMB as scholarship to each student. China has also built a good number of skill development centres for people of Xinjiang. The core objective is to create a pool of quality human capital to attract investment, improve people’s living standards and create a welfare society.

One wonders why Xinjiang is the target of malicious propaganda. Why are opponents levelling baseless allegations of human rights abuses? The answer is complicated. Xinjiang has been marked to be used to create bad blood between Muslims and China. There is no second opinion China and Muslim countries are strengthening their relationship.

China has forged partnerships with different forums like Arab League, GCC, etc. and strengthened bilateral relations with Muslim countries. Its investment in Arab countries has substantially increased. Saudi Arabia is the largest trading partner of China in the region with $107.22 billion in 2023. Saudi Kingdom is the largest oil exporter to China. The country also received $5.5 billion under the BRI investment in 2022, which makes it the biggest recipient.

China has strengthened its relationship with Central Asian states and investing generously in the region, helping them pursue their dream of sustainable development. China is the biggest importer of fossil fuels from the region. On the bilateral level, China is investing in Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, etc. In recent years, Iran has emerged as one of investment destinations for Chinese investment.

Unfortunately, opponents do not appreciate strengthening relations between China and Muslim countries. They feel it threatens their hegemony. They deem it necessary to curtail China’s relationship with these countries. The Muslim states, however, are comfortable in building their relationship with China.

Nature has blessed Xinjiang with a variety of fossil fuels, precious metals, rare earth metals, etc. Moreover, it is also home to 30pc, 34pc, and 40pc of country’s oil, natural gas and coal reserves respectively.

Data further shows the region has approximately 5.6 billion tons of oil and 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. Natural resources are the biggest attraction for the Western countries, especially for the military-industrial complex. The analysis shows Western countries create disturbances in resource-rich regions or countries in the name of democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, etc. They instigate people to launch a colour revolution and demand separation. They even introduce violence and extremism to achieve objective.

Through these actions, they want to separate resource-rich areas from the country and create a resource-rich weak country to exploit its resources. History presents many such examples, like creation of East Timor, division of Sudan, etc. They are trying to apply the same methodology in the case of Xinjiang. China, however, is failing Western countries in achieving their goals.

Xinjiang is strategically located. It borders many countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the northwest, Pakistan and India to the southwest, Mongolia to the northeast, Russia to the north, and Afghanistan to the west. It is a connecting node for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and China-Central Asia and West Asia Corridor. CPEC provides China with an alternative route to avoid the start of Malika in case of security challenges and emergencies. Through Central Asia and Russia, China connects with Europe.

It is an emerging major land trade route for China. Xinjiang is also an important nod to the “golden channel”. Therefore, it is dubbed as a gateway of land connectivity for China. The West deems it a threat to their hegemony. Xinjiang, being an important nod, has become the target of malicious propaganda. They think by creating disturbance in Xinjiang, they can disrupt China’s land connectivity, which will impact country’s supply chain. In the modern economic system, connectivity and strength of supply chains determine any country’s economic and development prospects and global status. They assumed by disrupting connectivity and supply chains, they would be able to undermine China and check its peaceful rise.

The West is trying to create a bad image of China by portraying China as an abuser of human rights. They consider it will discourage countries from building economic linkages with China and undermine Belt and Road Initiative.

We can draw two conclusions. First, Xinjiang is developing quite fast; people’s livelihoods are improving; people are experiencing benefits of modernissation drive; Muslims and other communities live together peacefully. Second, Western propaganda has nothing to do with human rights or genocide.

It is all about undermining China, capturing precious resources of Xinjiang, cutting land connectivity options for the country and shattering the dream of common people’s development in Xinjiang. If the West really cares about Muslim or human rights, they must first stop genocide in Palestine and Kashmir. Instead of stopping Israel and India, they all are supporting them.